PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
UKRAINE AND NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION (18 January 1993)

That this House notes the forthcoming vote in the Ukrainian Parliament on whether Ukraine should ratify START 1, accede to the NPT and become a nuclear weapons free state; expresses in the strongest terms its support for President Kravchuk and all those campaigning for a non-nuclear Ukraine; agrees with President Kravchuk that the West should be working more actively to secure a positive vote; regards the decision not to link major long-term aid and investment for Ukraine to Ukrainian denuclearisation as a major failure of Western policy; is concerned that the pro-nuclear weapons arguments and logic of the British Government has encouraged the nuclear nationalists in Ukraine; and urges Her Majesty's Government to make a last-minute diplomatic and political effort to assure Ukraine that it will gain in stature and security only through denuclearisation, and will receive a negative security guarantee from Britain that if Ukraine gets rid of nuclear weapons on its territory it will never be targeted by or attacked by British nuclear weapons.

Sponsored by:
Mike Gapes (The Independent Group for Change)